In 2002, Amitabh Kant was a mid-ranking bureaucrat in India’s Ministry of Tourism who, along with Ogilvy & Mather, created “Incredible India,” a genuinely brilliant campaign for a country with no real tourism identity and an international reputation stuck somewhere between spiritual curiosity and poverty tourism. It gave India a frame large enough to hold temples, tigers, backwaters, palaces, and the Taj.
The campaign also gave skeptical travelers permission to deal with the chaos. The “incredible” was always doing the work of a gentle apology: we know we’re a lot, but we’re worth it.
Twenty-four years later, Kant — who went on to run NITI Aayog, serve as India’s G20 Sherpa, and now sits on the boards of IndiGo, L&T, ITC, and HCL Tech — has publicly called for ₹20,000 crore in tourism marketing spend. The Ministry of Tourism’s total allocation for 2026–27 is just ₹2,438.40 crore.
And the Parliamentary Standin